A report from the farm about what ethanol is doing to the landscape

[GliderGuider]

Robert Rapier on The Oil Drum has posted this email he received from a farmer in the midwest. Many of us who had our eyes open saw this coming a year ago, but here it is:

I am a farmer in Nebraska, where I farm 160 acres of corn (a "small" farmer by any standard). I have lived on my farm for 50 years. I wish people could see up close the devastation to the local countryside that this ethanol frenzy has brought---and is going on as we speak. Landowners are ripping-out beautiful windbreaks and tree stands of cottonwoods and elms, these were windbreaks that were planted by the CCC back in the New Deal days, and getting the land ready to grow corn. This past winter, a factory hog farm came in and purchased a neighbor's farm. This farm was a beautiful piece of property with a grand 100 year old home and excellent buildings. They outbid all of the local farmers who wanted to buy it. Within 2 months they had completely stripped everything away--it's all gone. It just broke my 88 year-old dad's heart to see it. Other farmers around me are busy plowing-up grass pastures for corn production, land so hilly and highly erodable I never would have thought it could be used for growing row crops.

This corn-for-fuel thing has everyone in my area plowing-up their alfalfa fields. Alfalfa is an excellent low-input crop. Once it is established it pretty much takes care of itself, doesn't need any fertilizer or herbicides. It produces alot of protein and naturally enriches the soil. It takes a good two years after planting to get a crop from alfalfa, so with the dissappearance of these fields I don't care to think about the long term effect it is going to have on dairy farmers in my area, who need lots of locally grown hay.

I'm just a farmer and not good at writing, but I hope I have given Alternet's readers some idea about what is happening "out here". I wish I could post some pictures I have taken of the devastation.

New-built and proposed ethanol plants are going-up in the cities around me. No matter that they require enormous amounts of water in an area that is experiencing growing water shortages. The Platte River, which is about 10 miles from where I live, is a major gathering place for birds migrating to Canada. It has completely dried up in the summer months the past several years.

Our senators Nelson (D) and Hagel (R) beat the drum for ethanol production with every speech they make. But that is probably because Monsanto and ADM were big contributors to their campaigns.

[youngdem]

1. I thought it was unlawful to remove CCC windbreaks?

:shrug:

Those guys are assholes for removing them. They are very important in mitigating Dust Bowl conditions during drought.


We should ban fuel production from food crops before we fuck ourselves terribly. Make it come from discarded crop materials and switchgrass.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Conditions for a new Dustbowl were my first thoughts too.

Windbreaks and cop rotation were necessary preventative measures in reaction to the devastating dustbowls of the 1930s. Greed and misuse of the land may leave this country not only with little or no ethanol, but also no food.

[razzleberry]

3. hard to believe, a farmer complaining about higher prices

for his crop.

I WOULD believe, a schill for big oil
writing something like this

[madrchsod]

5. higher prices? no... higher costs

[GliderGuider]

6. Where does he even mention money?

His complaints are about ecological destruction. Seems like a sensible thing for a steward of the land to complain about, no?

[razzleberry]

7. higher crop prices, have consequences ...

a corn farmer complaining about
the consequences of more money for his crop?

sure

[GliderGuider]

8. Yes he's complaining about the consequences

What's so hard to understand about that?

The money from the ethanol gold-rush subsidy is a windfall. The loss of topsoil and aquifer water is, in human terms, essentially permanent. Once the land is fucked from subsidy-driven corn production the money will stop flowing, but the land will remain fucked. As this farmer is observing, the consequences of corn ethanol production in its current guise will be the strip-mining of the last few inches of our topsoil.

What syllable of the word "unsustainable" is giving you comprehension problems?

[4dsc]

9. Stewardship is a thing of the past

I am engaged with discussions about ethanol on another forum and I brought up the idea of stewardship and the other person responded by claiming( and he's a ethanol advocate) that "stewardship is dead" and is no longer practiced en mass.. Now I know this doesn't speak of all farmer but it does seem this ethanol greed is sweeping the farmlands and good farmers will revert to bad practices for an extra $$$..

[GliderGuider]

10. That makes it even more important to listen to warning voices like this.

If only to be able to say "I told you so" as the last topsoil slides into the sea...

[madrchsod]

4. this has been happening for years here in northern il

i realized when everyone jumped on the ethanol wagon that mother earth will get her revenge someday. if people think that ethanol is going to solve anything they are sadly mistaken.it will only take a few years of drought across the grain belt to destroy the myth of ethanol.

here`s a rainfall map from the dust bowl area. from 10% to 25% with 25% the darkest


04b_dataPRECIPobserved1m.jpg

almost everyone who lived through these years have died

[ramapo]

11. Insanity has no bounds

There seems to be no limitation when it comes to short-sighted, piss-it-all-away land use.

This is yet another bad outcome from our addiction to the automobile.

[The2ndWheel]

12. The automobile is just a symptom

Which is a shame, because we're not even dealing with that, let alone the bigger problems.

[GliderGuider]

13. It's all just symptoms, except for...

population, the elephant in the room.

Too may of us, doing too much too cleverly.

Remember, I=PAT.